Losses for Denmark’s PostNord

Like Royal Mail in the UK, Denmark’s PostNord has noticed a drop in the number of letters that people and businesses write and send.

The service, which is jointly owned by the Danish and Swedish states, delivered 28 per cent fewer letters during the first quarter of 2024 compared with the first three months of 2023.

This brought an operating loss of 63 million Swedish kronor (€5.4 million)  now that the service operates in a free market after the government revoked PostNord’s obligation to deliver post to all addresses, however remote, in June 2023.

This requirement entailed continual losses for the service despite annual government subsidies that ran into hundreds of millions of kroner which came to an end following the changes agreed in June 2023.

Although backed by most of the country’s political parties, not all were happy with the changes.

“It’s crucial that all Danes in all of the country will still be able to send and receive letters,” Thomas Monberg, the Social Democrats Transport spokesman said at the time.

The Ministry of Transport is meanwhile monitoring PostNord’s postal services and will intervene if it finds that it no longer provides an adequate service.

Now lacking its hefty government subsidy and facing competition from other delivery companies, PostNord has raised its prices, charging 25 kroner (€2.12) for letters weighing up to 100 grammes instead of 12 kroner (€1.02) for letter under 100 grammes.